Lafayette knocks out H.L. Bourgeois in second round

HOUMA -- Even with the rain as an ally neutralizing Lafayette's offensive attack, H.L. Bourgeois could not get past the Lions in the regional round of the playoffs at Tom B. Smith stadium.

Lafayette scored three unanswered goals in the second half on its way to a 4-1 victory.

With the score tied at 1, Jordan Judice found the back of the net for Lafayette to give the Lions a 2-1 lead at the 20-minute mark in the second half. Eric Ellender hit a shot from the corner, which was followed by a header by Kevin Ellis, which gave the Lions (35-4) their second win in the playoffs. Lafayette will face the winner of Thursday's Airline-Sulphur match in the next round.

"What I think is we have scored a ton of goals this year, with a dry field. What I really believe, it's probably 8-0. That's what I believe," Lafayette coach Dwayne Belfour said. "These guys here can play. They've been ranked No. 1 all year, I don't really like that, but a dry filed is a different game."

H.L. Bourgeois (11-4) contained Lafayette in the first half by crowding the goal.

"They did a very good job of containing us in the first half, but once you get up a goal things have to really open up because they got push up, and that's pretty much what happened," Belfour said.

With so many players staying back on defense, the Braves had a hard time of getting back on offense and trying to get open shots at the goal.

"I told the guys that we need to take advantage of shots on the outside, and I played more of a defense, I stacked the defense a little bit more than usual, and that created some problems," HLB coach Rodney Boudreaux said.

Vincent Thao scored the Braves' only score by deflecting a shot past Lafayette goalie Carlos Thompson, who was caught out of position to make the save.

Braves goalies Brandon Gamble and Chris Chiasson combined to make 18 saves in the match.

"Our goalies played excellent, I couldn't be more proud of our defense," Boudreaux said. "The saves that we had. The goalie was in the goal, and just the ball didn't cross, and we saved a couple of them like that. The last few goals, those were just cheap shots."